Just a month ago I was in beautiful Singapore, where I worked with my TakingITGlobal (TIG) colleagues to coordinate and facilitate the student track of the 6th Microsoft Asia Pacific Regional Innovative Education Forum (RIEF). It was TIG’s second year running the student component of the forum, and this year was a great success!
Words cannot describe how energizing and inspirational it was for me to work with and support bright young leaders from the Asia Pacific region in transforming their dreams of a better world into real project plans.
Let me first tell you how it started… For the second consecutive year, Microsoft Partners in Learning for Asia Pacific (APAC) has partnered with TakingITGlobal (TIG) to bring student voices to the Regional Innovative Education Forum (IEF), after a successful experience last year in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The Regional IEF brought together sixteen students between the ages of fourteen and nineteen from ten different Asia Pacific countries. These youth were selected as the most active, engaged, and creative individuals amongst more than 250 students who subscribed themselves and participated in a month-long online dialogue about the role of technology and innovation in education that took place in January and February.
And what was the reason to bring students voices to the Regional IEF? Nowadays most teachers have come to the realization that they cannot continue teaching as they used to, as evidenced by a growing array of innovative new teaching methods. Project-based learning, international collaborations, virtual learning environments and many other new learning tools have been implemented in classrooms around the world, and have been the focus of much academic study. However, one of the most obvious sources of feedback on this topic is also one that is far too frequently absent from studies and reports. Including student voices in the evolution of teaching practice is a key.
This year’s theme for IEF was 'Situating Schools in the Real World - From Learning to Know to Learning to Be a Global Citizen.' Schools in the Asia Pacific region have been under increasing pressure to prepare students who are adaptable to change and empowered to change their environments, who are creative and innovative, and who are able to apply knowledge and solve problems with confidence. Regardless of their location, these students face a common destiny where the unfolding of an event in one part of the world affects lives in other parts. In such a new world order, schools have to prepare their students to be agents of change rather than just passive observers of world events and at the same time, to live together in an increasingly diverse and complex society and to reflect on and interpret fast-changing information.
The key challenge for schools then is to prepare students to become global citizens who understand the nature of global issues and take an active role in addressing them. To meet this challenge, school and classroom activities have to be informed by real world issues, events and trends where students are first expected to be active seekers and constructors of knowledge, and their learning involves the discovery and transformation of complex information. Students are then expected to act upon these issues, events and trends locally, and share with their peers at the national and international levels. As students assume increasing responsibilities for their own learning and actions, the learning paradigm in schools has to shift from learning to know to learning to be a global citizen.
On the first night - Sunday March 7th, we gathered for orientation, to discuss expectations, and to set goals for the event. We all arrived as strong individuals with different background, interests, and experience, having in common our desire to make our planet a better place. Within only a few hours we transformed into a close-knit and cohesive team! Amazing!
Our more than packed agenda was promising in the first part many interesting workshops and team building designed to help students to develop and enhance their project management and leadership skills. The idea was that those skills could then by applied within the second half of the forum, when the students would work in teams to develop project plans that utilize information and communication technology to support global citizenship and international development goals in hopes of being awarded seed funding from Microsoft and Sprout E-Course on Project Management by TIG!
We started the evening with words of welcome and encouragement from Puay San Ng, Regional Academic Programs Manager for Microsoft Asia Pacific, and both Jennifer Corriero, Co-founder and Executive Director at TakingITGlobal, and Michael Furdyk, Co-founder and Director of Technology at TakingITGlobal. It also featured the first of five professional development workshops, facilitated by Bernice Ang and Shaun Koh from Syinc. Bernise and Shaun shared their wisdom on the topic of “Design Thinking for Social Innovation” and engaged students in a team building social innovation activity.
Before any of this could take place, however, we needed an official kick off! Monday March 8th got started with the Students’ Opening Ceremony. The students heard from Penny Low, a Singaporean Member of Parliament and President and Founder of Social Innovation Park Ltd, who shared a touching personal story and inspirational words about the importance of replacing the traditional ‘Cs’ (cash, cars, capital, etc.) with more compassionate ones (caring, correcting, collaborating, etc.). We also listened as Felicia Brown, Microsoft Asia Pacific’s Regional Academic Programs Manager, officially welcomed us to the forum.
After the Students’ Opening Ceremony, the professional development workshops were resumed. The second workshop, facilitated by Katherine Walraven, TIG’s Director of Education Programs, focused on evolutions in digital media and how to take advantage of web 2.0 tools in supporting projects. This session also included an overview of TakingITGlobal website, programs, and history, and a case study of how TIG’s technology is being used by the Centre for Global Education. Terry Godwald, Director of Programming for the Centre, shared with students the possibilities to collaborate through TIG by sharing his own experiences with the TIG platform.
During the third workshop the students worked with Lim Hong Li, Aloke Verma, and Anne Yeo from the Facilitators Network of Singapore, to learn more about project management and leadership skills and qualities. The students brainstormed components of project management process and explored the steps in a project management cycle, which they would later use when building their own project plans. I was really impressed by the enthusiasm demonstrated by the students. They did a great job identifying the intellectual and emotional (IQ and EQ) qualities of strong project leaders and proved themselves as strong leaders.
In the fourth workshop, students heard from two past IEF participants: Shobana Nair and M. Iman Usman, who shared their experience developing the ‘Children Behind Us’ project, following their participation in the 5th Microsoft Asia Pacific Regional Innovative Education Forum in Malaysia in 2009. The project received seed funding from Microsoft Asia Pacific in order to help educate children in slums in Indonesia and Malaysia by utilizing volunteer teachers and tutors.
In the fifth and final workshop, Brian Lariche, Director of Lariche Community, explored the “Realities of Selling A Community Project.” Based on his own experience in the development field, he provided students with practical advice and suggestions related to how to tailor messages to specific stakeholders when trying to get support for a community based project.
That night we were treated to a local food feast when we went to the famous Newton Circus Hawker Centre and ordered lots of food. Too much food, in fact! Our eyes were much bigger than our stomachs and were not able to finish all of the food that we ordered. The students felt really badly that so much food was going to waste and so we made a commitment as a group to take efforts to make the IEF more environmentally friendly. We promised not to waste food and no to drink form plastic bottles during the event. Shaun (one of the mentors) convinced hotel staff to replace the plastic bottles that were placed on our tables each day with a water container and glasses!
The next morning, we were invited to attend and participate in the Teachers’ Forum Opening Ceremony. In addition to opening remarks from representatives from the Singaporean Ministry of Education and Microsoft Asia Pacific, this even featured a keynote speech from Jean-Francois Rischard, Former Vice President of the World Bank, who painted a picture of the scale of the challenges that we face as a global society and his ideas on what we can do to turn things around. He identified teachers and education systems as central in building the new global citizenship mindset that is required to address pressing global issues.
After all of the speeches concluded, a group of students and their mentors were invited on stage to take part in a panel discussion about education facilitated by Jennifer Corriero, Co-founder and Executive Director, TIG. This allowed the students and their mentors to share with the teachers in the audience their opinions, experiences, and suggestions related to education, teachers, and innovative uses of technology. The audience was also invited to ask questions and share reflections and feedback with the students.
We were delighted to have Mr. Rischard join our group in the days that followed. He expressed how impressed he was with the students and spoke with us about what we, as young people, can do to make a difference as global citizens. Mr. Rischard shared with students his notes from the panel discussion:
“Having just given my keynote speech at the opening of the IEF event in Singapore, I sat down and listened to the views of five students, moderated by Jennifer Corriero, Co-founder and Executive Director, TIG. I was immediately struck by the quality of the student’s remarks, and promptly took a lot of notes. Here is, after a little organizing, what they had to say on learning, technology, mindset and teachers – with important messages for educators:
Learning: involve the students more
o Break out of the classroom, and out of the confines of the textbook
o Make learning a personalized experience: the teacher drives but the students contribute
o Stop using years old textbooks and leaving it at that; use students to gather current knowledge
o Students want tools to apply in the real world – treat them as producers, not as consumers
Technology: build on the opportunities it offers
o Textbooks need not be dead: with the help of the Internet, they can become live textbooks
o Internet connects cultures more seamlessly than in real life: everyone anywhere in the world can look at the exact same news website, and there’s something awesome about this
o Even after the class is finished, use the Internet to provide students about to fall behind, or wanting to know more, a way to catch up, or dig in further, from home
o The wiki method is addictive – maybe there’s a way to apply its magic in the field of education
Mindset: develop global citizenship
o Insight: if you’re not a global citizen, how can you be a good national citizen these days?
o If you’re taught only local history and not world history, how can you become a global citizen?
o Start to develop a global mindset at a young age, and through doing things, e.g. planting trees
o Youth wants to take action on urgent global issues, especially since so many solutions – what it needs are platforms for action
Teachers: have real impact
o Teachers with the most impact are those with passion and infectious enthusiasm -- a good teacher will get you interested in anything
o While competence counts, it is teachers who also project emotional intensity, and are willing to share personal experience, that leave a mark
o Teachers ought be more IT-savvy than students or otherwise gracefully accept their help
o Students ought to be able to discuss with the teacher outside the school environment
o Facts can be found on the Internet; teachers provide perspective
After the Teachers’ Opening Ceremony, we headed off in a bus to visit Ngee Ann Secondary School, a Microsoft Innovative School. At the school we were welcomed by Ms. Boon Kiat and student buddies, and were introduced to innovative lessons, and classrooms. After that Jennifer introduced TakingITGlobal to local students and led interactive Leadership Lesson at the school assembly. We also had lots of fun with local student buddies during lunch together, sport match, and outdoor cooking.
After the school visit, we headed out on the town for some shopping and sightseeing! Here is a photo of us visiting the iconic Merlion in downtown Singapore.
The next day, March 10th, was focused on working in teams to develop project proposals. The students worked hard to brainstorm ideas, research, build their project plans, and develop PowerPoint presentations – all of the while listening to and learning from one another. While it was a lot of work, it was also a lot of fun!
On the next and final day of the forum, the pressure was on to complete the project proposals and fine tune the presentations that would be delivered to a group of five judges (Jenny Lewis, Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Council for Educational Leaders; Gary Tan, Principal of Raffles International Christian Schools in Indonesia; Puay San Ng; Katherine Walraven; and Jennifer Corriero) and an online audience. Time flew by and before I knew it students were presenting their project ideas! I felt so proud to be among so many dynamic young leaders as they delivered professional and engaging presentations.
Asked how they felt the students had done, our judges expressed that it was really impressive what the students had accomplished in a little over a day. To reward their efforts, each student was granted a scholarship from TIG to participate in the Sprout project management E-Course – as part of their own exclusive class! Initial plans had included only 4 scholarship winners but the students did so well that they all got this prize!
Sprout will help students to fine-tune their project plans, which the judges felt would benefit from deeper background research and development. At the end of the eight-week course, the project proposals will be resubmitted to judges for the final decision on who will receive micro-grants from Microsoft. Stay tuned for updates!
Overall, this forum was an amazing, uplifting, and inspiring experience for me. Meeting and working with incredibly talented and committed people – young and older – who want to make our world a better place was so energizing! I really enjoyed connecting with the students in my role as a mentor and facilitator. In the end, I supported them but, they also supported me! We all learned from one another. They learned from me about project management, presentation, and leadership skills, and I learned from them about the ambition to achieve big dreams…
;-) Lucie
